Breaking The Habit: How to Get Rid of Bad Habits For Once And For All

Much and all as we hate to admit it, most of us have at least one bad habit. So what’s yours? Here in the Her.ie office, we’re guilty of a few things (nail biting and knuckle cracking being only two).

And while habits like nail biting and knuckle cracking aren’t likely to cause any serious damage to your health, habits like smoking could end up having a severely negative impact on how your body functions.

Chances are if you have a bad habit, it’s something you’ve been doing for months, if not years. How can you simply stop yourself from doing the actions/behaviours that you’ve been engaging in for so long?

As the old saying goes, if there is a will, there is a way. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been smoking twenty fags a day for the past ten years or if the sound of your knuckles cracking is the only thing that can calm you down – no matter what the habit, you can kick it if you’re willing and determined to stop doing it.

If you’re serious about getting rid of your bad habit, here are three easy steps that can help you break the cycle and let go of that habit for once and for all.

With enough determination and patience you can break any habit

1. Figure out the when and why:
The first thing you need to do is figure out when you engage in your bad habit and, more importantly, why you do it. It helps to keep a notebook and write down every single time you find yourself doing your bad habit and how you feel as you do it. Make these notes for a week or two and chances are you will start to see patterns in your behaviour.

Say, for example, you bite your nails. You notice that every time you bite your nails you’re usually feeling stressed out or worried about something. Now you know that feelings of worry tend to make you chew on your fingers.

2. Write the pros and cons:
Now you know why and when you engage in your bad habit, it’s important to analyse your behaviour. Write out a list of the pros and cons of your bad habit. Chances are there will be more cons than pros on your list. Take this list and place it somewhere that you’ll see it every single day.

3. Switch it:
The final step is to find a not-so-bad habit that you can use temporarily to replace your main bad habit. For example, if you bite your nails, try having a piece of chewing gum every time you feel the urge to chew on your nails. If you’re a knuckle cracker, try doodling every time you want to crack those bad boys.

Continue with your temporary habit until you no longer feel the need to do your main habit (experts suggest the urge to engage in your main habit will disappear after about three weeks). Then slowly phase out your temporary habit. If you feel a relapse coming on, turn to your temporary habit rather than your main one.

We know that breaking a habit can be hard to do, but the most important thing is to remain positive and determined and to be patient with yourself. After a few short weeks you’ll find yourself wondering why you ever bothered with your original habit in the first place!